Google-owned
Motorola has applied for a patent for a microphone tattoo.
The 'tattoo'
sticker is electronic and would be placed onto a person’s throat and pick
sounds created by their voice.
If the user is
making a phone call, the tattoo would then send these sounds wirelessly to the
smartphone and the caller.
The patent states the tattoo will have a microphone
embedded into it, a transceiver that enables wireless communication with the
user's smartphone, a battery and controller.
It would be used
for "acoustic noise for a mobile communication device and more
particularly to reducing acoustic noise with an auxiliary voice input."
Motorola said in
its application: "Mobile communication devices are
often operated in noisy environments. For example, large stadiums, busy
streets, restaurants, and emergency situations can be extremely loud and
include varying frequencies of acoustic noise.
"Communication
can reasonably be improved and even enhanced with a method and system for
reducing the acoustic noise in such environments and contexts."
The electronic
microphone could pick up the sounds made by a person’s voice by reading
vibrations and fluctuations of muscle or tissue from their voicebox.
The tattoos would
then send these sounds wirelessly over Bluetooth or NFC to a smartphone Motorola’s
patent application also mentions a “galvanic skin responsedetector”
that might turn the device into a lie-detector.
The patent reads:
“It is contemplated that a user that may be nervous or engaging in speaking
falsehoods may exhibit different galvanic skin response than a more confident,
truth telling individual."
It even mentions
the possibility of putting the electronic skin tattoos onto animals.
The definition of
'tattoo' is likely to be a thin 'sticker' than can be removed.
At AllThingsD’s D11 conference held earlier this year, the
head of the Google subsidiary’s Advanced Technology and Research Group sat
onstage wearing what she referred to as an “electronic tattoo” consisting of a
thin, pliable device that adheres to a user’s skin and could be replaced on a
weekly basis.
The tattoos were
developed by Massachusetts-based engineering firm MC10, and contain flexible
electronic circuits that are attached to the wearer's skin using a rubber
stamp.
Motorola said it
could use the electronic tattoos or pills to identify users wanting to access
smartphones.
Source: Telegraph
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